


Unstable

by Timpaxew



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 616 heroes added to the mcu, Avengers as family, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Incredibly liberal use of cannon plot, Peter Parker Acts Like a Spider, Peter Parker centric, Press and Tabloids, Sick Fic, Social Media, The daily Bugle, if you couldn’t tell by the everything about it, nypd, the people of New York, various civilians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-06-08 10:24:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15241347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timpaxew/pseuds/Timpaxew
Summary: Peter’s trying his best to help as many New Yorkers as possible, it’s just a lot of them haven’t seemed to know that yet.





	1. Peter beats up some criminals

**Author's Note:**

> Jean dewolff actually isn’t an oc? She’s in the comics, I read her Wikipedia, and her entry in a spiderman trivia book I got from the library, so that’s fun.

There’s a very specific sentiment every hero Peter’s met so far seems to share, at least to some extent. Doesn’t matter if their name is known to the masses or whispered, terrified, in secluded back allies. Whether they’re admired by the people they’re trying to protect, or outright feared by them. It all boils down to about the same thing.

Their heroics always end up growing to become both their pride, and the bane of their existence.

Peter knows that, probably more than most. Maybe it’s the effect of having a secret identity. The way it let him see his own wake as an outsider. Both the praise and the condemnation, without any of the cushioning. People didn’t really want to insult Iron Man to Tony Stark’s face. Of course, as a high school student, Peter was savvy to the common people’s gossip surrounding their local neighborhood superhero. Most of which included excited conversations revolving around the topic of the fateful academic decathlon trip to dc even months after the elevator fell. To be fair, they almost died. That’s an experience that tends to sticks with people, especially if it’s involved with some dramatic superhero thing. He would know, he sees it in people far too much. He’s able to see that specific effect on others- not even just the people he saves, or the criminals he sends to justice, but people like Liz. People caught in the crossfire of his dramatics. 

Peter hasn’t heard from Liz since she moved to Oregon. Well, he hasn't heard from her directly. Her Dad- The Vulture- supervillain with the giant metal bird suit, he didn’t want her and her family to be around for the trial... after last year’s Homecoming. He’s heard some other students have been in contact with her. By ‘heard’ of course he doesn’t mean they told him the fact, or that he’s part of the group shes still in contact with after everything. He pieced it together from snips of conversation that he happened to overhear from across the cafeteria,thanks to his ever useful spider-senses. they’re especially useful when he doesn't actually intend to be using them, its not that he was trying to eavesdrop about her specifically. It’s loud in the crowded cafeteria, and it’s hell on his super senses. Half the time it’s hell on people who’s senses aren’t any more than average. It’s all easier to deal with if he focuses on singular conversations and voices while he waits for Ned. 

Super Senses can be a pain, but he’s learned to deal with them well enough. He’s had these powers for almost a year and a half now, of course he’s learned how to use them by now. It sucked the first few months after the bite, when he was helpless to control or even deal with his powers. They were basically debilitating. He can’t just turn them off, even when he’s dressed like Peter Parker, weak kid and Sophomore at midtown high, he’s still Spider-Man. And if that means he gets to hear about Jessica Taylor’s new labrador puppy for ten minutes, then so be it. His favorite treat is bacon strips, and he’s the cutest dog Peter shouldn't actually know about. 

He was still Spider-Man now, walking down the street back to the apartment from school, against all appearances. Holding his head low and his eyes scanning over the cracks littering the sidewalk. The school day had drawn on, and honestly Peter just wanted to head back to his apartment, jump out the window, and punch some stuff. Peter almost tripped over a ridge in the sidewalk as he shuffled towards home. He had his head buried as far into his midtown hoodie as it went as he skulked past the same allies his alter ego would be crawling through confidently less than a few hours later. He may have Spidey’s powers without the mask, but it’s not like he normally has the confidence that comes with having a mask and the cover of a name that's not really his. 

That’s why he needs the mask when Spider-Manning, people fear a masked vigilante. Dorky high school sophomores who no doubt look like they haven't slept in weeks don't exactly strike fear in the hearts of anyone. Usually he end up causing more looks of concern than of fear. Not sleeping for days on end will do that to you. And the occasional broken rib helps. 

Peter sank lower into his hoodie as he neared a small group of cops clustered by a parked cruiser. Peter Parker didn't have a real reason to fear New York’s finest, he shouldn’t have to, anyway. The fear was more of muscle memory than anything, still his spidey-sense blared uselessly in the back of his head. They have no reason to shoot at him. They wouldn’t. They shoot at ‘dangerous vigilantes’ who wear red spandex and jump across the rooftops of New York. And sometimes other undeserving civilians, but that’s another conversation. Either way his spider sense is blaring as he shrinks past them a little too fast to be considered casual, or normal, for that matter.

Peter pulls out his phone and reflexively opens twitter as he shuffles towards his apartment. He scrolls past a few new Avengers memes. Most of them are the usual blurry pictures with shitposty captions, most of which don’t manage to exceed the one of Thor throwing his hammer captioned ‘my one true God out there… fighting with the power of Yeet..” Ned had sent him that one at two am. He even saw a few tweets from the #superherowatch tag trending- apparently Steve and Sam had gone out for coffee earlier- and the Fantastic Four had some big fight on the ferry, before a tweet catches his eye. It’s one of those sponsored ‘news’ tweets. This ones from The Daily Bugle, announcing in it’s J.J.J. fueled glory, that Spider-Man has poisoned the crops and single handedly destroyed New York. Ok that may be hyperbole on his own part, but it’s not like he’s really placing kittens into trees either. 

It’s a poorly cropped and blurry picture of him from the fire in Hell’s Kitchen a few days ago. The smoke isn’t doing any favors for the photographer and it looks like the picture was taken at a hundred yards. You can't really tell its him, if he hadn't remembered the snap of the camera pinging his spidey-sense weakly, he would have mistaken himself for Daredevil. Seriously who is taking these pictures? Peter’s almost tempted to start volunteering to take them himself, at least to make him look less like Bigfoot’s lame Spider-themed little brother. 

The picture was taken of him pulling a toddler out of the burning building, moving to give him to his mother less than ten seconds later. Of course, it’s displayed in the article as ‘SPIDERMAN STEALS NEW YORK’S YOUTH TO TRAIN IN OWN DARK FOOTSTEPS” which, by the way, would be a wild way to find himself a protege. Luckily for peter, he isn’t in the business of finding a protege at the moment, because he is a protege. And if he was, he wouldn’t go about finding one through arson and kidnapping. 

Of course he knows the only logical way to find a protege is to borderline blackmail them into fighting with you in a foreign country. Not forgetting the important step to subsequently realize how terrible of an idea that was, and let them crash your plane, or something. And bam, you have a protege. 

Even with the whole ‘shiny new vigilante superhero, endorsed by Tony Stark!’ Thing, it was only a matter of time before all of New York decided he was nothing but a Menace. 

Forty thousand retweets and counting, The Daily Bugle is a well respected and influential news source, as they seem to enjoy refering to themselves as. As shown by their very true and real articles that get so many clicks. Like ‘SPIDER MENACE STEALS DOG’ accompanied by another Bigfoot esque photo of peter helping find the owner of a lost dog, and ‘SPIDERMAN DEFACES NATIONAL ICON OF LIBERTY AND FREEDOM’ they don't even have the decency to write the hyphen, and come on! That one was just a picture of him sitting on the Statue of Liberty and waiting on Johnny. He’s holding a picnic basket, what could they possibly interpreted that as ‘evil’ for? He cant even hang out with friends without it being made out as an evil scheme.

Speaking of The Human Torch, America’s Sweetheart, his photos are always brilliantly taken and captioned with hearts and stories of heroics. Most of the time, they contain at least the basis of what actually happened. Or at least, what the public thinks happened. Whatever they write, Matchstick is always the hero in them. 

Peter still doesn’t understand how these new ‘Fantastic’ superheroes can just show up out of the blue falling from space or whatever, and immediately be loved by everyone. Peter’s been around for like a year and half now, and no one's ever liked him, even for a little bit. Maybe he should try falling from space. 

Peter huffs at the captioned #spiderman as he walks into his apartment, he can’t really fault them for not putting the hyphen in the hashtag. That, to Peter’s great disappointment, doesn’t work. 

Peter needs to do some sort of social media retcon and really fix his image, or something. At least solidify that its spelt Spider-Man, wasnt that at least clear on youtube? 

Peter grabs an apple before he throws on his suit and takes a bite out of it as he slides open his bedroom window. He's almost done with his apple by the time he's situated on top of a corner store a few blocks down. He ends up chucking his apple core into a trash can on the side of the roof and pulling back down his mask by the time he hears the tell all sounds of crime bustling in the alleyway.

Another thing that doesn’t quite transfer between being Peter and being Spider-Man would probably be his decision making skills. Not saying Peter Parker makes the world’s best decisions, he doesn’t. But the Adrenaline of the fight isn't doing Spidey any favors, either. 

That’s probably how Spidey ended up landing with a thud in front of a group of about five ratty looking criminals, his Spidey sense alerting him of their numerous and barely even concealed weapons. 

“Spider-man!” A startled squeak sounded from behind him, and he’s reminded why he jumped into this ally in the first place. 

Mugging. It’s always a mugging. What happened to good old fashioned bank robberies? Peter hasn’t heard the diabolical monologuing of an obnoxiously costumed villain in what felt like far too long. He misses it. It seems like he’s only been fighting your average run-of-the-mill petty thieves as of late. 

He should count it a blessing, he hasn’t had to go to school with broken ribs or anything of the sort in a few weeks. May and Tony would force him to stay home if they found out he did break anything. 

Apparently trying to explain that he’d done it all the time before May found out wasn’t the correct way to get around that conversation. That’d only gotten him grounded. 

Peter doesn’t give the wannabe criminals the time of day as he turns to the woman, letting his eye-lenses go wide with what he had learned was a less threatening look. Less threatening in comparison, apparently jumping down from the rooftops with no earlier prompting tends to startle people. Who knew? 

“You ok, ma’am?” He said softly, standing up on the ground of the alley and gently reaching a hand towards her palm up, placating. The woman nodded numbly and Peter’s shot her a soft smile, even though logically, she shouldn’t be able to see it through the mask. Peter hoped the message still translated to the rest of his body language anyway. 

Peter’s Spidey sense pinged at the back of his skull, and he turned in a fluid motion, knocking the knife out of the hand of the largest mugger, she was gruff looking woman with shoulders wider than the length of Peter’s entire body. She also happened to be first of the criminals to make their way out of the shock and decide ‘I could totally take on Spider-Man, that’s a good idea and will end up well for me.’ He caught them on the side of head, knocking them off balance before webbing her to the wall.

Peter narrowed his eyes as he looked over to the other muggers, who had all lost their ‘threatening stances’ and ended up gawking from their friend, to Spidey, to their friend, who was still struggling against the webbing sticking her to the wall, and back to Spidey. 

“Oh! Didn’t see you all there, did you want something?” Peter smirked under the mask, flicking his wrist and disarming the closest, kicking another in the gut before flipping past them. 

After all four of them were webbed and in varying states of beaten up, Peter turned back to the woman. He looked towards her and with the most non-threatening voice he could muster said “would you mind calling the police for me?” 

She nodded at him before moving to shake his hand. Peter awkwardly shook it as she started to ramble far to many words in a single breath, “thank you so much, I uh- I don’t know how to repay you!” Her voice was shaking almost as much as her hands as she pulled out her phone and started to dial 911. 

“Just call the police ma’am, don't need to repay me” Peter brushed off her thankfulness, laughing under his breath. 

She looked like she wanted to argue but didn’t get the chance to as Peter swung off and out of the alleyway. 

Peter jolts to attention mid swing, stumbling to a stop on a rooftop a bit lower than he planned on landing, falling to a crouch and to attention. 

Screaming, a young voice, a kid. Peter didn’t hesitate as he sprung forward to follow the noise. 

Peter quickly takes care of the goons trying to kidnap the kid. Loosening up on the control he had on his strength until he heard the cracking of bones behind his punches. He looked down to see the kid. A little thing with short blond hair and large brown eyes, tears streaking his cheeks. 

He looked scared, and peter moved to comfort him “hey, it’s ok-“ his soft assurance was interrupted when the kid scrambled backwards at the movement. The kid’s wide eyes followed him as he backed up against the alley’s wall. Peter freezes, he can see how terrifying he must look, all big eyes and beating people up. 

“No- I’m- ok.” Peter shrunk back, “Hey buddy, sorry if i scared ya,” Peter started over, and moved to crouch on the concrete ground, “I can help get you home, if you want?”

The kid looked up at him with wide eyes before back to his captors, passed out and webbed to the ground.

He mumbles to Karen to call the police before turning back to the kid, “hey, mind telling me your name? I’m gonna call the police officers, so they can take you back to your parents. They’re nice, they want to help protect new york, just like me.” Peter hums as he walks the kid further out of the alley. 

The kid grabs onto his wrist as he follows, “...M’names Mac” the kid mumbles as he trips over his own tired feet.

“Hey kid, you wanna sit down on the side of the street here?” Peter asked, sitting criss-cross by a lamppost and watching the kid settle next to him. The kid draped himself across his knee as Karen informed him of the police’s location/ 

Peter wrung his gloved hands together as he heard the sirens approaching, debating running away before the cops made it there. Peter looked down at the kid, almost asleep against him. He couldn't leave him. 

Peter took a deep breath, readying himself as a Cruiser drove up and parked by the curb. A short woman, with red hair and a strong stature was clear through the closed window, sat in the driver's seat already talking. “Smith, i told you, Spidey isn't our suspect here, if anything he's like- hes the witness that called 911” 

“A very involved witness” A gruff voice huffed from across in the passenger seat, as the two officers got out of the car. 

Peter Tensed up at that, quickly recollecting himself and speaking with an overly jovial tone, “Hey, hey, hey, Mac, id like you to meet my Friends in Blue.” Peter slowly stood up from the pavement, motioning the kid to follow him towards the cops. Peter purposely gave them distance, far enough so that he could spring and escape if they turned to shoot at him, but not far enough for it to look weird. “They're gonna make sure you get back to your family safe and sound,” Peter turned to look towards the nicer cop, the one that had defended him in the car. She was smiling at him before she turned to talk to the kid. 

Peter took another step back before turning to talk towards the other cop, “There's some crooks webbed up in that alley back there… yeah.. Ok- uh by-” Peter moved to web away before he was stopped.

“Wait! Spidey!” The kid looked up at him with a grabby hand, “Thanks!” He called before turning back to the cop. 

Peter can't help but smile as he webs away. 

Peter was sitting on the edge of a lower building, listening intently for anyone who needed his help. He hummed as he resettled to lean against an air conditioner, pulling out his phone again. Maybe one of his police scanner apps would have something for him. He didn't even open the scanner apps, finger tapping twitter as he crossed his legs that were hanging off the building. Muscle memory typed in the #spideywatch tag. Sometimes he liked to see the stream of bigfoot photography after his patrols. He scrolled through the tag, huffing at a text-post that could have been made by any of the night’s citizens in distress. It had a few hundred retweets, either they were a popular user themselves, or it was retweeted by one of the bigger hero-watch accounts. The tweet was in almost all caps, “My hands are still shaking typing this! Spider-Man Just saved my life, He's so much smaller in person!” Which was rude, he isn't even that short. Peter kicked his ankles against the brick of the wall as he re-opened the scanner apps. He was about to give up and pull out his phone to report to Happy when he heard commotion from the street under him. 

That in itself wasn’t all to unusual, he’s in New York and he’s dressed in brightly colored spandex. Sitting on the edge of a high-rise with his feet dangling off the edge. People notice him. Since Toomes and Coney Island and the stark plane, people had started noticing him more. Though there was a chance that could have been his new cooler looking suit. If nothing else it made him look far less like a kid in his pajamas, more professional. Like a real vigilante, running around in their pajamas. Very cool pajamas.

“Hey!” A call from the street below forced Peter to realize the commotion was directed at him, and not about him. He leaned his head over the side of the roof and cocked his head quizzically. 

A man in his late thirties, maybe early forties, was leaning against the railing of the staircase attached to the apartment complex he’s sitting on. He’s swaying a bit as he talks and Spidey can smell the alcohol on him from up here. Gross.

“Hey! Freak!” Spidey shakes his head before turning back to the lights of the city, listening for the token sound of screaming or sirens. Deciding it was best to ignore random drunks. 

“HEY ASS” the guy spits up at him, he’s standing now, square in the middle of the walkway, yelling up at a man far above him. If he didn’t have enhanced hearing, he doubts he would even have heard him. He almost didn’t notice him and he can almost hear the spit dripping down his chin. New Yorkers had started to flow past him, one or two stopping to insult him or to see what the commotion was about. 

“Don’t think I don’t know you- hear me, you freaks are always way up there, listnin’ to ery-thing!” He slurred on his words, taking a step closer to the building. “All you capes ever do is cause problems! I fuck’ng hate it!” Peter could hear the sound of the guy’s hand hitting the brick of the building, “fucking vig-lantes! We wouldn’t even have these ‘super’ criminals you ‘protect’ us from if you just left the bad dudes to the cops, an’ stopped provokin’ them,” Peter chose to ignore the way he stumbled over pronouncing ‘provoking’. 

Peter shook his head, still trying to tune out the slurred triad, it was the same tired speech he’d heard multiple other times by different people in almost identical situations. Even smelled of the same cheap alcohol. 

“You’re a danger, you know that! How about you get out of my fuckin city, menace” the man took a swig from whatever bottle he was still holding at the end of his sentence as some sort of drunken punctuation. 

Peter almost laughed as he crawled a few feet down the side of the building and looked down at the man. “‘Menace’? Really? Did you take that quote straight from The Bugle? Besides, I’m fairly sure you said the word ‘freak’ at least ten times there, ever think of taking some creative writing classes? Or something? Anything?” Peter quipped before swinging way, following the retreating sound of police sirens. 

Peter may punch the next baddie he came across a bit harder than he usually would have, knocking them out before webbing them to the floor of the seven-eleven she’d been trying to rob before Spidey got there. 

Peter told the cashier to call the police before webbing away, landing with a thunk on the side of a water tower. He looked up at the smog covered sky and couldn’t help but mull over what Mr.Freak had been on about. 

It wasn’t the first time Peter had been given an unsolicited speech about the danger him and other ‘supers’ had been putting New York in over the years. He’d even been blamed for The Incident one time. Which should have been funny, if it wasn’t so very sad. He’d been ten when the sky above New York opened up and rained destruction via aliens. If that wasn’t a proper alibi, Peter didn’t know what was. Of course, he wasn’t just going to tell them that defense. ‘Um excuse me sir, i couldn't fight any aliens, i was ten and still needed glasses’

Peter bumped the back of his heel absently on the metal of the water tower, repeating the dull thunking noise. Maybe that guy had a point, with saying that he was the one that attracted the super villains. Most of his rotating cast of wacky overly themed villains are just after him for revenge, and all of New York via association, at this point. But it’s not like he asked to have grown men in animal costumes develop vendettas against him. And if he hadn’t been around to stop their plans to start with, who would have? Besides one of the numerous other vigilantes crawling around New York. 

Peter just wanted to stop muggings and keep people from losing the ones they loved. He’d never been planning on a life where he was expected to stop a plan for world domination that probably wouldn’t have even worked if he hadn’t stopped it every week. Isn’t that just how life went, one day your saving stolen bikes, and then your fighting a World War Two vet whos now a sentient swarm of bees in a trench coat. 

Peter hums as he taps at his phone, finger hovering over the call button, thinking over what he was supposed to report to Happy. 

He pressed the phone to his ear as it went to voicemail, “wasn’t much of a day, stopped a few muggings and an attempted kidnapping. Ended up helping an old lady take her groceries up like six flights of stairs” he paused, things like that are why Tony, had taken to calling him the ‘Boy Scout vigilante’ well, he shouldn’t have reported that, they'll make fun of him. Too late now, “the elevator was broken.” He added after what was probably too long of a pause, biting the inside of his cheek.


	2. Peter is the worst a having a secret identity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s such a shame the ff aren’t in the mcu, they’re the best

Peter scratched the back of his neck, hooking the hem of his hood with his index finger and hitching the collar of his hoodie up over the cusp of his Spider suit. He knew the red material was safely tucked into the depths of his ratty grey Midtown hoodie, but at this point fixing his collar and sleeves had become a nervous tick. At least that was better than walking around with a suspiciously spider web decaled undershirt. 

The fancy red stark-tech material wasn't usually scratchy, the only place it ever really bothered him was where the mechanics of the neck attached itself to the mask. It was a necessary evil, probably wouldn't even be that bad if he didn't have enhanced senses. But it kept his neck itchy and his mask firmly in place. His old suit been holding his mask on by pure power of his natural stickiness alone. It worked about as well as everything else his old suit did, so kind of. It stayed on when a few of his early villains had tried to rip it off. But who knew what could happen with his powers back then, he's lucky he wasn't de-masked by the second fight. At that point he could barely stick to walls, let alone really control his powers. He can barely do that now. 

Peter pulled up the strap of his backpack higher on his shoulder, cutting past a corner down the sidewalk. 

“Listen, Smith. Spidey wasn't the one we should have been after! He saved that kid!” A voice spoke, muffled through the walls of a car and coupled with the sound of a car’s brakes pressing.

Peter froze at the sound of his name from across the street, pulling out his sleeves over his wrist. 

“Jean, for the last time call me Daren.” another voice, quieter but a ways bit gruffer, spoke muffled from the sounds of a car moving into park, “and you've seen The Bugle! The guys a menace,”

“I've read it alright, don't trust that Jameson as far as i can throw ‘em” The sounds of a car engine sputtering off echoed down the street, “And i can throw so good, man, but that raw talent only goes so far when throwing a guy like him” 

“Wolf, We’re cops, we have to evaluate the threats to the city” The gruffer voiced huffed. 

“He wouldn't hurt a fly, Smith. Well maybe he’d eat one? Would he…how spidery is he?” there was a pause “doesn't matter, that kid was safe with him. And don't call me that, its Dewolff.” 

“I don't know Jean, he's a menace, i don’t-” there was a clicking noise as a car window rolled down. 

“Oh would you drop it Smith, the guy’s done more to protect our city than you ever will,” The car was parked along the road a small ways ahead of him, and Peter realized he had stopped walking a handful of yards away, listening in on their conversation. 

Peter was close to where the car was sitting at this point, the girl cop- who, up close, he recognized as the one from the attempted kidnapping last night, had her knee out the window and was talking animatedly with her hands. 

The male cop, pressed solid against the back of his seat, spoke with his hands still gripped over the wheel “Yeah, i've seen what he's done, what he's capable of-” disgust ran undercurrent through his tone as he spoke, fiddling with the leather of his steering wheel. 

“Oh is that it, Smith. You just don't like the fact that he's powered?” the leg retreated into the car window as the officer sat up in her chair. 

“No- i.” The other one, Smith. He lifted his hand from the wheel and smacked it back down again, “It's the mask, he doesn't have consequences, hiding like that. He could be anyone!”

“Anyone!” there was a scowl in Dewolff’s voice, “Yeah, any one person out there who goes out every night saving lives!”

“I mean, sure.” the other cop looked up from the wheel and out the driver’s side window, “But, someone with a mask like that is hiding something, he could be a convict! Or your neighbor, or your kid’s teacher, your doctor, people you should trust!” The officer was tapping on the wheel, “He could have been in our precinct!” he looked, over towards the other cop- and coincidently through the window to where Peter was still in the line of sight. 

He didn't seem to notice the teenager, and instead kept talking “He could have been another cop, or a lawyer, or-”

“A vigilante lawyer?” There was laughter in her voice as Dewolff interrupted.

“Shut up! You could be spider-man! I could! Anyone could be!” Smith tapped his hand on the dashboard. 

“If i were a spider-themed vigilante superhero, id have a far better name than Spider-man.” The mocking tone was still evident in her voice. 

“Im being serious, Wolf. He could be anywhere”

“Its Dewolff.” There was finality in her voice as she looked away from her partner. Her eyes drifted towards Peter and he took a startled step back. But her gaze quickly drifted past him towards the other people littering the street, “Like out of all the millions of people in New York, We would run into Spider-man maskless.” She shrugged as she rolled up the window, “what are the chances?” her voice was far more muffled when she spoke again “that we ran into Spidey already- or at all- was wild.” she put her leg back against the dashboard, “Lets just go, Smith, we have work to do.” The two went silent as the engine virred to life and the cruiser drove away down the street. 

Peter watched the police cruiser disappear around a corner and listened to the light bickering for another few blocks before they faded into the background noise of the city. 

Peter shrugged off the overheard conversation and finished the walk towards midtown tech. He wondered what their reaction would be if they found out who he really was right at that moment. Peter doesn't really care to know, he also distinctly did not want to be shot at right then, so hopefully he never finds out. At least that other cop, Officer Dewolff? Peter thought that was the name, at least, she seemed to have some faith in him. That really didn’t seem to be the popular opinion, though. But it wasn’t like people liking him is the popular opinion in most situations. Peter almost felt bad, for the fact that he was causing arguments at the police station of all places. When did Peter’s life get so strange? 

By the time he had reached Midtown’s doors and started to push them open Ned was running up beside him.“Y'all ready for some pizza crunchers?” Ned spoke in what was most likely a poor imitation of a wrestling announcer as he elbowed Peter in the side as he caught up to him.

“Dude, i can't believe you actually like those things.” Peter laughed, turning to smile towards Ned. 

“The school’s at a split decision, either hate them or you love them” Ned smiled, “gotta love that crunchy cheesy glory” 

“Well i for one, am part of the lucky half that hates them.” Peter chuckled. ““Why would they put the marinara sauce inside the mozzarella stick, it just ruins a perfectly good mozzarella stick!”

“Bold of you to assume you know which side you fall on, you've never even tried one.” Ned huffed, the laughter cracking through his voice. 

“Don't have to, i can smell how disgusting they are from like, half the school away.” Peter scrunched up his nose, “im not letting any of those one step closer to all this” Peter motioned vaguely to his face with the back of his hand. 

“First of all, Peter; gross. Second, youre a spider, not like, Ratatouille, what do you know about food?” 

“I was actually bitten by a radioactive chef.” Peter deadpanned, holding a serious look for about a second before laughing and throwing his locker open. “It's true, now i have the powers of a non-stick frying pan, can heat things like Johnny but it only works on food, and... super strength,” he pulled out the books he needed for first and second period and a rusty looking paperclip, which he fiddled with in his hands. 

“I hate-” Ned stopped mid sentence with a chuckle, “Wait, why super strength?” 

“Who doesn't have super strength?” Peter smirked as he bent the paperclip in half between his index finger and his thumb.

Ned snorted, “Peter, normal people can bend paperclips, what are you doing!” Ned ended up doubled over at the waste trying to catch his breath through laughter. Every couple choked breathes hed force out an “Oh my god!” or one of various obscenities. 

Ned finally calmed down enough to lean against the locker, “This is just like-” His words fell out to a batch of laughter, “do you even know like, the normal strength of a normal person anymore?” Ned’s eyes crinkled from smiling too hard, “ you're always all like ‘WOW how heavy are these books! Me, a weak nerd, cannot possibly carry these heavey heavey books!’ and you're only carrying like, two notebooks and a calculator.” Ned lightly punched him in the shoulder, laughing. 

Peter laughed under his breath, still playing with the paperclip in his hands, “I- im trying, so much, dude.” 

 

Ned motioned towards the moderately sized stack of books Peter was planning on taking to his next class, “and then you go and do stuff like this, how'd you ever make it through gym class without getting caught? You cant even keep up like a, a standard measurement for a ‘Peter Parker the real normal boy’ level strength” 

“i'm just your average boy with a wildly varying levels of strength” Peter laughed into his books, “I swear dude, Remember those stupid ropes in gym?” 

A look of realization flashed over Ned’s features, “So that's why you were so nervous! You were scared of giving away how sticky you are,” Ned chuckled as he pulled the strap of his backpack up, ”I thought you had just convinced yourself you would make a fool of yourself in front of everyone,”

“Oh that too, of course” Peter deadpanned, grabbing another book from his locker. 

“Oh, of course.” Ned laughed, waving to Peter as he broke off to head to his own class. 

By the time the bell rang for lunch Peter was about ready to run to the cafeteria. 

Ned got his attention easily as they walked towards the cafeteria, “Were sitting with the rest of the academic decathlon team today,” he announced without looking at Peter. 

Peter scrunched up his nose, thats where Flash his group usually sat, “Why?”

“Apparently Betty Brant is forcing M.J. to sit with them, so she's forcing us” Ned shrugged. 

“Oh of course, why did i ask” Peter sighed, smiling. 

“She specifically told me ‘Tell Parker if he flakes out of this, he's never going to live it down’, Which is actually pretty solid advice, since Flash is probably waiting on us specifically. 

The two walked through where the hall opened up into the large room of the cafeteria. A few banners advertising the dance that happened a few months back are still hanging loosely from the walls. Peter quickly sees where Betty and M.J. are already sitting at a table, presumably the one he's going to have to sit at. He does a little half wave that M.J. acknowledges with a nod, and Betty was about to wave back but was distracted by Flash throwing his tray onto the table.

“Yall, guess fucking what.” Flash yelled loud enough that Peter could have heard it with lower than average hearing. 

“What?” Betty asked, MJ didn't respond and Flash did not seem to notice. 

“Spider-man Sightings were off the chart last night,” Flash said proudly, “He's been more active the last few weeks, and everyone's saying he's been around midtown more.”

“So,” betty asked, interest lost in her voice.

“So?” Flash sounded offended they didn't get where he was going with this, “Today should be the perfect day for the second official meeting of the SMFC!” 

“I can't believe you made a Spider-man fanclub” one of Flash’s friends said and then immediately backtracked, “I mean- it's totally awesome, hell totally show up” 

“You need to calm down your raging boner for Spider-Man, dude. He's probably like 43” Cindy Moon commented as she sat down. Peter grimaced from the lunchline, gross. 

“Shut up, i do not” Flash laughed awkwardly, “And at least i'm not Parker, he totally has a crush on The Human Torch-” WOah ok, no. Also gross, and no. He does not! “-i mean, he talks about him all the time,” Flash continued, unaware of Peter’s protest forty feet away. He talks about his friend because he's awesome and they fight evil dudes together. Well it's not like he can.. use that excuse. Peter sighed and gave Ned a long-suffering look.

“Is Flash making fun of you?” Ned asked as a response, “I mean, at least he's doing it behind your back” 

“Yeah, sure” Peter chuckled as the lunch lady piled gross mozzarella sticks on his tray. 

When he sits down Flash doesn't even throw him the usual insults or whatever, he's still talking excitedly about him- or well, his alter ego.

“I swear dude, he was like right there! Fighting some huge slimy monster thing!” Flash gushes about how awesome spider-man was at a fight Peter remembers all to well. God that was awkward as hell. That was one of the first times he’d worked with Johnny- Well one of the first times he worked with Johnny as Spider-man. Johnny had looked at him like he was an idiot, speaking to a random civilian in an overly deep fake voice, like he thought he was daredevil or something. Being made fun of by Johnny was almost worse then Flash actually finding out who he was. Almost.

That whole fight was memorable. Course, it’s hard to forget when he couldn’t even get the fluorescent pink goo out of his suit with all of Stark’s science cleaners at his disposal. Asking for help on that one was... embarrassing to say the least. 

Ned hummed in response to something Flash had said, whatever he’s saying, Ned is going along with it and throwing Peter a shit eating grin. “Yeah, right? Spidey could totally be an avenger if he asked!” Peter glared at him from across the table,

“not that Spidey would want to be an avenger, hes like, our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” Peter shot a side-eyed glance at Ned.

Mj shot a look between the two of them but didn't say anything.

Flash clapped his hands and talked towards Peter, “he’s so cool!” Proving Flash would even talk to him about spiderman if he brought it up. 

Mj spoke next, over her book and feigning reluctant interest “So Flash, hows that new club of yours’ going, again?”

Flash lit up, “dude! Our first meeting was last Tuesday, Of course we got like forty members,” flash stuffed some cafeteria French fries in his mouth, “of course Spidey has a ton of fans at the school.” 

“Yeah, course. He’s only saved us like ten times.” Mj huffed, turning back to her book.

“Why can’t the villains just go after other high schools.” Cindy Moon let the extreme sarcasm fall into her voice

. “Right? What’s so special about midtown” Abe brown laughed from the other side of the academic decathlon table. Or he guesses, just a random table kids in academic decathlon just happened to sit at. Well except for Ned, Pete, and mj, usually. 

“i wish more superheroes would come here to fight,” Sally Avril looked off in thought for a second before Mj spoke up 

“Maybe something's caused midtown to be a target for all this superhero nonsense?” Mj asked, voice level and disinterested as she chewed on the back of her pencil.

Cindy, Abe, Sally, and most vocally Ned and Peter, all made various comments on how preposterous that idea was, why would midtown be a target? It’s not like anyone even remotely related to superhero stuff goes here! No! The conversation abruptly and awkwardly shifts, and lunch goes on.

Peter is about to head outside to find Happy before going to the labs, but was stopped by Mj, “you and Ned are coming with me to Flash’s club today, they’re building a shrine to spiderman, it’s gonna be terrible” there was no question in her voice. 

Peter mock gasped “are you inviting me to something!” 

“No, you don’t have a choice.” She did a little half smile “doesn’t count” 

Peter laughed and let himself be lead to the roof.

The first thing he sees when he gets there is Ned holding at least more than ten large thanksgiving candles. 

“Ned? You’re in this club?” Peter asked. 

“Peter? Isn’t it a little vain to be in this club?” Ned shot back, handing Peter his stack of candles.

“Michele wanted me to come,” Peter defended, pushing past him to follow Michele out to the center of the roof.

“How’d you get approved to do this up here?” Peter called to anyone willing to answer.

“We have to be approved to be up here?” Flash looked up from the ‘pedestal’ he was setting up, one of those foot long wooden tables that folded like chairs. He had a few candles already on it, a stuffed spiderman plushie that Peter didn’t even know they sold, and at least five boxes of… something. 

“Hey guys?” Peter called, “you know Spider-man isn’t a demon, right?”

“Shut up Penis, you have no idea what spiderman likes!” Flash shut him down immediately. 

Ned started laughing. 

“Shit, ok, you’re right, touché.” Peter took a step back, looking at the rest of the ‘gifts’ for Spidey. “What- what are those?” He asked, motioning to the boxes of.. some sort of snack food.

“Sour cream and onion grasshoppers- we also have cheese flavored, a bag of fried crickets, and some of those Lollipops with assorted bugs inside” Abe read off, to Peter’s growing apaulment. 

“And- why would- what makes you think Spider-man eats bugs.” Peter objected, looking to Ned with a terrified look. 

Ned smiled widely at him, “well, he’s a spider right? So we thought we’d leave him a snack while he’s patrolling,” Ned picked out another box from his backpack, “like an arachnid Santa Clause!” 

Peter huffed and took the box from Ned and read it, ‘delicious Bacon and Cheese seasoned crickets- a crazy cool snack!’ The box read in bubble lettering, a small window of see-through plastic showed a bunch of dead crickets. “I actually hate this, Ned” 

Ned smiled at him, “you’re welcome,” 

Peter moved to hand the box back to Ned but he stopped him, “nope, Pete that box,” he pointed to the one he was still holding “is the one I bought specifically for you, Peter Parker.” 

Peter scoffed, “Peter Parker doesn’t eat insects” 

Mj chucked from where she was drawing in her sketchbook, “yeah, but Spider-man does” 

Peter looked at her with a look of so much betrayal, for someone who didn’t know his secret identity, she was an asshole about it. 

Michelle flipped her sketchbook towards him, to show a semi-realistic drawing of him almost retching, “your looks of disgust are really fun to draw, though” 

Peter scowles as he shoves the box of bugs into his pocket. 

Peter smelled smoke and for a few seconds thought a building near him was on fire, until he heard The accompanied badly sung pop songs that could only mean Johnny Storm was flamed on and flying towards him. 

Hm. At least the Spider-man fan club would be able to make some contribution to #superherowatch today. With Peter here? Their chances of seeing Spiderman are little to none. 

A few other students gasped when Johnny came in to view. Peter almost rolled his eyes, the idiot was doing flips in the air, because of course he was. 

It enacted Peter’s fight or flight response when Johnny stopped mid flight and turned around, right towards them- not stopping- and he landed right on the roof next to him.

He flamed off as he landed, “Parker! I thought you wanted to meet at the usual place after school today?” He was wearing his fantastic four uniform- which makes sense in terms of flame retardants- but a few other members of the ‘spider-man’ fanclub were already freaking out and taking pictures of Johnny, and subsequently him talking to Peter. Traitors. Also; bad for the secret identity. 

“This might as well happen,” Peter spoke under his breath as he looked up to meet Johnny’s eyes. He was staring at him impatiently, like his response to this should have been immediate. Peter wasn’t exactly frozen, he just really dreaded the idea of having to answer, and he definitely didn’t want to encourage him. What he truly wanted to say was “matchstick, what the fuck” because, what? He’s Peter and at school right now, what about this could be interpreted as ‘yes the famous Johnny Storm, come talk to me, Peter Parker, right now.’

This is exactly why he didn’t want to tell Torch his secret identity.

Peter still hasn’t responded, and was currently dumbfounded and staring at Johnny like he was looking out at a storm approaching on the horizon. ‘Cept this was worse, because a literal Storm was right here, talking to him. A normal kid going to a normal school with a totally normal life, except now everyone knows he knows Johnny Storm, great. Because the ‘internship’ wasnt suspicious enough. 

Mj broke the silence first, “we literally set up this shrine to attract Spider-man, why are you here.” She was doodling in her sketchbook as they talked, probably something about Peter’s look of crisis.

Ned laughed through his words, “Peter did say we were using to many candles for getting Spidey” He laughed, “Candles attract the giant candle, its basic math.” 

“I suggest covering it in hammers next time, then” Betty joked back while taking another picture of Johnny. 

Torch got Peter’s attention again with a showy flaming snap of his fingers, Peter rolled his eyes at him with a “yeah?” 

“Pete! Dude, once you’re done doing whatever this is,” Johnny motioned around the roof with one hand “wanna go get donuts, or something?“ 

Peter was about to respond when Flash spoke up from near the shrine, “ wait, Parker, how the hell do you know The Human Torch?” 

This time Peter did freeze up, “I-uh… i-“ 

Johnny put a hand up to Peter’s face, the universal sign for ‘shut up’. “At Stark’s place,” he said simply, before making a scene out of pointing at Peter, “met this stupid intern while I was there, and I kept making him get me coffees,” Johnny talked with hands waving wide motions as he talked, “but then whenever he’d get close enough to hand it to me, I’d take all the heat from them and complain about how cold they were and ask for a new one,” 

That whole story was actually based in reality. Pretending to be Tony’s actual intern was the only way he could sit in on important meetings with the Fantastic Four while also keeping his secret identity intact. Peter flipped Johnny off, “I actually hated your guts until like a month of knowing you”

Johny grabbed his hand and pushed his middle finger back down, forming his hand back into a fist and cupping his hand in his own. “Aw, I only did it because I thought you were cute,” 

M.J. was shooting him the biggest shit-eating grin she could manage, which was more of a subtle smirk, but she was clearly ecstatic. You know what? Peter has no friends, actually. 

Peter shook his hand back from Johnny, “we’re actually trying to give our gifts to Spidey, for our club, to say thank you!” Peter said with fake excitement, “hey, Torch? How about you leave” he paused, looking pointedly at Johnny, “so you can go ask Spidey to come! That should work” he said in his best singsong voice. 

Johny smiled at him, you could see the realization cloud his eyes before they caught up with the rest of his features. “Oh, that sounds great!” He’s so clearly trying not to laugh, he’s failing miserably. 

The heat hits his skin as Johnny flamed on, launching off the building. Laughter echoed as soon as he was out of sight, it was so loud and on point with that Storm brand of obnoxious, that Peter’s sure the others could hear him without super senses.

“Hey Pete?” Betty said from where she was relighting a few of the Spidey candles. “Why.”

“Yeah Peter, are there any other superheroes you know?” Mj looked up from her sketchbook. 

“No I- no. I don’t know know any other superheroes.” Peter lied, like a lying liar spider who lies. 

A few minutes of waiting on Spidey and messing with the shrine later and the Torch landed next to them again, he’s definitely left at least one scorch mark on the roof by now, which is expected. Apparently the school allowed for this spider themed demonic ritual, so it fits the aesthetic at least. For a second Peter wonders what Torch was doing while pretending to talk to him, and then he realized he probably doesn’t want to know or care. 

 

“yeah I found Spidey!” Johnny announced, “it was strange, he was just sitting in the trash, apparently that’s where he lives, who knew?” Johny has on a cool smile, but the ends of his lips are curled up because he never really could hide a laugh. 

Ned semi-successfully hides a laugh behind a fake sounding cough and Peter wonders if anyone but him is really into the idea of keeping his secrets 

Judging by the fact that he told these two assholes, Peter isn’t too big on keeping his secrets, either 

“So what’d he say?” Peter goes for some level excitement, but his tone just comes out tired and done 

“Oh! He said he’d be around later to check it out, probably in the middle of the night, because he’s afraid of light” Johnny is talking out of his ass, but maybe only Peter can tell, because the others are nodding like he’s a college professor and this is the most important lecture of their lives, “like a cockroach” Torch finished by doing an ‘aha’ motion with his hand.

Peter sighed, maybe a bit too dramatically, but he was holding back a lot. “First of all, cockroaches don’t actually fear light, they just prefer the darkness,” 

“-so spiderman is just edgy, then?” Mj interrupted 

Peter ignored her, “and second, maybe you just think spider-man hates light because you’re made of light and he hates you? 

Johnny pouted, actually pouted “he hates me!?” He said in an over exaggerated tone. 

“Yeah he told me himself” Peter sighed 

“Ok, rude. And Sue will kill me if I’m not back at the tower soon, I wanted to try and get you to come with, but you’ve clearly got nerd stuff to do?” Johnny looked around the roof again. 

“Wait, who's turn is it to cook?” Peter asked, his answer was entirely based on that fact. Dinner with Johnny cooking was an entire different experience than with Sue or Reed. 

“Sue’s, were having that shit where it’s like spaghetti but it’s shredded squash instead of noodles?” Johnny explained needlessly. Peter was on board as soon as he knew Johnny wasn’t cooking. 

“You tempt me, this should be over soon, I’ll skip the hot pockets and or lobster that comes with Tony’s labs to hang out with y’all nerds till after dinner?” Peter paused, “yeah, I’ll get happy to drive me over to the tower after that.” 

“You know Stark gets so jealous when you hang out with Reed? He’s like “that’s my- intern, you stretchy son of a bitch!” 

Peter laughed and suddenly noticed the others looking at him like he had two heads, “yeah I’ll meet you at the Baxter building after this, I’ll have to call Happy first, but I’ll text you,” 

“Cool, see you there!” Johnny smiled over to him as he flamed on and flew the opposite direction of the Baxter building 

“Peter, were you just invited to dinner with a team of superheroes?” Betty asked a second after Johnny left. 

“....Yes?” Peter watched the flash of johnny disappearing behind a building. 

“Can you get me The Human Torch’s number?” Betty asked. 

Peter shrugged, “Probably not” 

“Dang.” Betty shook her head, relighting another Spider-man candle. 

 

The club meeting ended soon after that, the students slowly dispersed and Peter stayed back to blow out the candles after they all left. He didn’t want to be the reason midtown caught fire. Also it’s a shrine to him, so he should have the right to do anything he wants with it, right? 

Peter was a second away from blowing out the candles when they puffed out suddenly. 

What- oh. Peter felt the heat of a just-flamed off Johnny ramming into him. Luckily, Spiderman had super strength and amazing balance. Unluckily, Peter Parker did not, so Peter Parker was knocked to the ground by a flying asshole. 

“Hey, bud” Peter huffed from the ground, pushing Johnny off of himself. 

“Yo, yo, yo, is your nerd shit done?” Johnny jumped up from the ground, smirking at him. 

“it is now!” Peter huffed as he sat up. 

“Good! You want a ride to the Baxter Building,” Johnny asked. 

Peter made a look that was either confusion or annoyance. Why would he, Spider-man, who can swing. Ever. Ever, want to ride on the back of a superhero who can actually fly. That makes zero sense. 

“Yes” Peter said, . 

Johnny smiled at him like he just won the actual lottery. “Ok, I’ll carry you, but don’t like wiggle too much?” Johnny look at him for input, and Peter almost snorted. 

“I’m literally spiderman, dude. I can just stick to you back, it’s not that deep” Peter shrugged, “just hold on for like five minutes, so I can change into my spider suit in an alley. 

Johnny smirked, “we don’t have time, I’m already late and Sue will murder both of us if we’re any later” 

“You just want me to act like a civilian, don’t you?” Peter laughed. 

“You know me so well,” Johnny laughed, “hold onto my neck, it’ll be romantic.” 

“I actually hate you so much.” Peter folded his arms, serious look ruined by the laughter. 

“Love you too, Spidey” johnny smiled at him. 

Peter laughed, “fine but don’t catch me on fire, I will cry, and it will be awkward.” Peter smirked, “and I am not letting you carry me bridal style, I would rather walk.” 

Johny clicked his tongue, “too bad.” He laughed before flaming on, quickly unflaming his hands and grabbing Peter by the shoulders.

The ground was no longer under his feet and wow. This would be a lot more terrifying if he didn’t have his web shooters and a death grip on Johnny’s arm. “I hate you, so much” Peter called up to Johnny, who was laughing maniacally above him. 

All of a sudden Johnny had dived, dropping Peter a few feet above the ground in an alley. 

“Hey what-“ 

“You’re Peter Parker, said so yourself. you’ve got to check in like a normal person.” Johnny flamed on again, “see ya, sucker.” 

Peter curses after him as he flies to the roof of the building. This food better be absolutely amazing. He deserves a six course meal after dealing with Torch. 

He finds the front door to the Baxter building and walks through, a few super businessy people in suits look up in confusion when he’s ushard ahead of them in line by the girl at the check in desk. “oh hey Pete, are you here for Johnny?” He nods and she smiles, pressing a button on her desk, “you can head right up honey, he’ll be expecting you.” 

Peter smiles as he cuts away to the elevator. He can hear the woman at the desk explaining to the business folks that he’s a personal friend of Johny, which sounds stupid when you say it out loud. What’s an impersonal friend? See? It’s stupid, it’s not even technically true. They’re really coworkers aren’t they? In the business of superheroism, or whatever. Well, Peter’s not getting paid, so it’s not really a job. Is Johnny getting paid? Who knows, honestly. It’s well established that Peter is apparently getting paid in bug candy, now. Thanks, Ned. 

The elevator door opens and Peter is brought face to face with Johnny’s annoying face. “Youre the worst, you know that?” Peter asked instead of greeting him again. 

Johnny smiled, “were setting up the table, come help.”

Peter hummed an affirmation as he followed, greeting the rest of the fantastic four as he met them. 

Of course Johnny owns expensive designer silverware, he feels like it should feel weird to hold a fork that’s worth more than he is, but at this point he’s weirdly used to it? Basically everything at the tower is worth more than him. 

“Hey Pete!” Sue greeted as she moved passed him to grab a plate from the cupboard. “Foods ready!” She called out, immediately Johnny came running back in from where he was either setting the table or slacking off. Probably the latter. 

Peter follows Johnny to pile noodles on his plate, grabbing a piece of bread as he moves to sit near jhonny at the table. 

Peter almost stops eating at a normal amount before he realizes everyone else at the table is also enhanced. And also; everyone here knows he’s Spider-Man. He has no reason not to indulge his fancy enhanced metabolism. He’s gotten better at keeping up with it lately, his healing factor has even sped up since he started eating well. That was one of the best things to come out of May finding out, more food. 

“Hey Pete, can we please talk about the fact that when I showed up you were at your own fan club?” Johnny smirked, “I thought I was the vain one?”

Peter scrunched his nose, “It wasn’t even my idea to go, my friend who doesn’t even know asked me to come,” Peter shook his head, “well I haven’t told her, she might know anyway, though” 

“Still, why was your school trying to summon you?” Johnny borderline giggled. 

“Yeah, the whole, shrine thing was pretty wild, but it was probably result of my friend who does know making fun of me,” Peter shrugged. 

“You have a friend who knows?” Johnny asked quickly.

“Yeah, he saw me in the suit once” peter scoffed, “i don’t think I’ve actually told anyone the secret, it’s always an accident or they like, find it out on their own”

“We all need to hang out.” Johnny hummed, twirling his fork. 

“Ned would die” peter said,

Johnny smirked “good, then I’ll be your only friend.”

Peter smirked, “bold of you to assume I’m your friend.” He shrugged,“but yeah, he definitely influenced the creation of that shrine to make fun of me, there was a theme among the ‘gifts’ of different bugs for me to snack on while patrolling.” 

“Wait, you eat bugs?” Johnny asked, 

“No!” Peter objected, why does everyone assume that? 

“Have you eaten any bugs?” Johnny was smiling at him like he already won something. That’s a bad look. 

Peter responded after a moment. “...no?”

“Maybe they taste delicious now, since you’re like, half spider…?” Johnny was grinning at him. 

“I hate that I had to hear that sentence with my own ears” peter shook his head. 

“Honestly, I hate that I had to say it.” Torch shrugged, “but you should try eating them, like for science” 

“Hey jonathan?” Peter asked, voice mock innocent.

Torch was quiet for a confused second at the incorrect full name usage, “peterathon?” 

“Why don’t you try drinking gasoline, for science” peter mocked. 

“He has.” Sue cut in from across the table, deadpan. The he table broke into laughter after that. 

“I don't know, man” Peter shovels another forkful of spaghetti in his mouth, “people all seem to love you guys, and like the Avengers, and Tony, but Tony was already famous- before everything, I guess” 

“Maybe were just more loveable than you?” Johny laughed. 

“Johnny, you literally drank gasoline,” peter flicked him on the back of the head. 

“Loveably stupid,” Johnny defended.. 

“It really is only the bugle that doesn’t like you?” Sue supplied from across the table. 

“They just really, really don’t like you,” Johnny added. 

“Maybe you could like sue them for deflamation or something? It can’t be legal to just lie like that.” Reed recommended, “or like, some pr thing?” 

Peter shrugged, “secret identity” he said simply, he’d had long conversations on that topic with daredevil before. Why daredevil knew so much about the law? Peter didn’t know. 

“Oh! Pete i know just what to do,” Johnny announced, Peter turned to look over to him, he was triumphantly stabbing his fork onto his plate. 

“What?” Peter asked, more than slightly worried about what amazing idea Torch had in mind.

“Ill just like, post more stuff with you on social media?”

“Wait like, who me-” Peter stumbled over his words, “I mean, which me- Peter or Spidey,” 

Johnny did large motions with his hands, “I don't know, either i guess, if we want to improve your like school popularity, we would like vlog-” Peter shot him a look that knocked him off that train of thought, “Fine, fine, but seriously! Spidey needs an internet presence, you're like a cryptid”

Peter shrugged “But i like the cryptid-ness” 

“Petey, you aren't sending fear into anyone's hearts with your mysteriousness, you aren't like, Daredevil.” He shrugged, “it’s just vague” 

Sue laughed from the other side of the table and Mr.Richards spoke up, “He is right, though” He took a sip of the water he was drinking, “Normalization is how you get people to stop fearing you, its how the Avengers did it,” 

Ben laughed, “Yeah, why do you think we let Johnny make so many stupid, mistakes? It reminds people hes human and literally just a child.” 

Peter scrunched up his nose, “Well, i don't want people to think im a child,” 

“Even though you are one-” Johnny cut in. 

“-unlike some people, I actually want to be taken seriously” Peter shot back at Johnny, interrupting him. 

“Ok, rude. But you don't have to give away your identity or anything, just like, retweet spider-man memes” 

“Yeah, i guess.” Peter’s phone rang from his back pocket, “Shit, its Happy” 

Mr.Richards gave him a look that was probably ‘language’ but Peter ignored it. “I have to go, Mr. Stark wants to go over some suit plans in the lab” 

Peter grabbed his plate and fork and brought them to the counter, “Thanks for having me, i'll see you all soon,” he looked to Johnny before he left, “By!” he called as he walked towards the elevator.


	3. Peter loved the rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will try to update more, I spent awhile getting half finished drafts finished first,

It was raining by the time Peter left the Baxter Building and made it onto the street outside. Puddles littered the pavement, potholes and natural indents collecting rainwater every few feet. Peter skipped between them on the way towards the slick black car waiting for him. He didn't bother to control how ‘normal’ or ‘possible’ his jumps looked. He jumped longways over an especially large collection of water, about four feat across, between him and the car.Who would care if a random kid jumped a few feet too far at nine o’clock in New York? Only him! Because it was fun, and he was the kid doing it. Well, maybe Happy. But he could deal with a few jokes aimed his way once he got into the car. 

The rubber sole that was barely connected to one of Peter’s worn out sneakers splashed into a rainwater as he pulled open the door to Happy’s car. “Hey Hap!” Peter greeted as he threw his rain-damp backpack onto the farther leather seat. He quickly followed suit, shutting the door on the rain behind him and trying to dry the water droplets that had already collected on the black leather closest to the door with his jacket sleeve. “Good morning!” He greeted the front seat as he rolled up his now wet sleeve. His eyes flicked to the night sky cutting behind buildings on the other side of his window and realized he messed up. If Happy noticed his slip, he didn't say anything. Course, saying good night implies one of them was about to go to sleep, so that wouldn't be right either. Good evening? “Have a good one!” Peter muttered as he turned back to look out the window. 

The pitter-patter of the rain drumming against the car’s roof echoed towards the back of his enhanced hearing, muddling with the screeching of tires and scattered shouts and groans of barely heard drivers. Everything seemed muffled on the outside of the car, quieted by layers of metal, and leather, and rain. 

On the inside of the car things were clearer than usual, without the distraction he felt from the rest of the world, he could hear the press of the break as Happy stopped at a red light, his steady breathing from the front seat and the way it hitched right before he started to speak. 

“Hey kid, how's… patrolling, or whatever?” Happy looked back at Peter through the rear view mirror. 

The window between the driver’s seat and the backseat was rolled down and he could see the back of Happy’s head as he drove towards the compound. 

Peter shrugged, “Pretty great, Stopped a kidnapping the other day,” Peter’s smile faded as the sound of shouting from a few blocks away broke through his thoughts, a group of people arguing. The sound of raindrops sliding down his glass window was pulled to the forefront of his mind as he paused. For a moment Peter debated telling Happy about the cops, the angry people, or the angry cops. A crack of thunder sounded off from a few miles away. He finally decided it wasn't important enough to tell Happy. “helped an old lady carry her groceries up the stairs’’ Peter decided on adding after a moment.

“Another churro?” Happy asked from the front seat with a chuckle as the car started to move again his eyes moved back to the road.

Happy had turned on the windshield wipers, the motion of it, as well as the sound of clean swipes across the glass rang sharp through his senses, he shoved them to the back of his mind, effectively ignoring them as he answered, “No, not this time” His laughter was awfully forced even to his own ears, but again, if Happy noticed, he didn't seem inclined to make a comment on it. 

Peter leaned against the side of the car door, bringing his knees to his chest in what must have been an awkward position to get into. The back of his head was pressed against the window, and he could hear the smack of raindrops echoing behind him as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. 

He opened Twitter, falling into the easy habit of scrolling through his own tag. ‘His’ being Spider-man’s, It didn’t take him too long to find something interesting enough to be a distraction from his thoughts. 

@fallingatlas 18 hours ago:  
#superherowatch Spider-Man just saved me in the alley near Delmar’s, he’s so much smaller in person! 

Reply> @ironbitch 16 hours ago:  
same! I never thought I’d be taller than a superhero 

Reply>>@fallingatlas 6 hours ago:  
Isn’t Tony Stark like 5’6?

Peter liked the first tweet in the chain, crossing his knees as he fiddled with his phone. It took him a second to get his fingers on the right buttons to screenshot it, he had accidentally turned off his phone and changed the volume before he got it right. He’d have to show the screenshot to Mr.Stark later. 

@Spideys8tharm 2 hours ago:  
who wants to win a drawing by replying with the best theory on how Spidey got his powers?

Oh this was fun, reading conspiracy theories. It was a wild rabbit hole to fall into. Exploring that side of the internet lead to some crazy places. Half the time peter couldn’t tell if people are under eighteen layers of sarcasm, or are so wrong they're correct again. A few weeks ago he'd stumbled upon a youtube video theorizing that he was actually Tony Stark’s secret kid. Which was wrong, he wasn't really a secret- or Tony’s son. He’d worried too much about people finding out his identity that night, barely slept. 

Mj had taken to texting the worst of the lot to him, and coming up with theories of her own. It would honestly be preferable for her to have found out, and this was her way of making fun of him in the most convoluted way possible. Peter honestly hoped it was the latter, it'd be embarrassing if she really thought his alter ego was ‘‘an alien- but not like Thor, he’s just super ugly, even by alien standards- that’s why he wears the mask’ as she had put it, oh so delicately. 

Peter scratched the side of his head as he clicked on the replies to that post. 

Reply> @Hawkeyes-quiver 1 hour ago:  
ok my totally legitimate theory is that his mom was a spider,

Reply>> @spideys8tharm one hour ago:  
Oh my god, which of you fucked a spider? I love this one 9/10

Reply> @nottherealfalcon fifty minutes ago:  
he doesn’t have any powers, it’s probably just his suit  
or smth 

 

Reply>> @spideys8tharm forty minutes ago:  
Boring! 1/10

 

Peter agreed, why would he choose to be a spider themed hero if he had absolutely any choice in the matter? He could have been literally anything! He’s the first to admit spiders are the literal worst. The worst! 

Reply> @hulksmashme two minutes ago: he was bitten by a magic spider 

Reply>> @spideys8tharm one minute ago:  
magic isn’t real 3/10 

Reply>>> @hulksmashme five seconds ago:  
Bold of you to assume spiders are. 

Peter chuckled to himself, screenshotting the last response to sending it to Ned. ‘So close, yet so.. very.. very far’ he added the caption to the screenshot before He opened twitter up again, there was only one response left to the original post. 

Reply> @moondog ten minutes ago:  
Well, he’s like a real person, he probably has like eight eyes or something from like the mutations for his powers

Reply>> @spideys8tharm: Yea, i know! Its soo weird that hes just out there, existing. He could be anyone under that mask, and we’d never know what he could do. Imagine seeing him on the bus! 

Peter made a face at the phone, that's the same thing that cop was saying, that he was hiding. He was, but it wasn't meant in a malicious way. Who cares that he could lift a bus, he wasn't going to just start bench pressing random people. 

It's a good thing he didn’t reveal his identity like Mr.Stark did. 

“Hey kid, we’ve made it” Happy got him to look up from his phone. 

Peter hummed a response as he moved to open the door, “Thanks, Happy!” He called as he stumbled out of the car. 

It was raining harder as he looked towards the compound, more puddles were collecting on the cement entrance to the building. Peter skipped between the puddles again as he ran towards the compound, under the cover of his jacket’s hood. 

Peter may have felt stupid running into The Avengers compound slightly drenched and in a ratty old jacket less than a year ago, but the secretary, Christine, smiled at him as he walked up to the scanner. He smiled back and waved as he scanned his badge. 

“Hey, Peter!” an irish accented voice sang from the speakers, “Would you like me to alert Tony of your arrival at the compound?” 

“Uh, yeah, sure Fri” Peter hummed as he walked through towards the elevator, pushing his hood back down and stuffing his id badge back into his pocket.

Once he was in the elevator and waiting on Friday to take him to the lab, he mulled over what he had to work on in the lab today. He had some enhancements for his web shooters planned for awhile now, that definitely had to get worked on. His suit ripped while he was climbing through the fire last weekend, that had to be sewed. He had an idea to enhance the tensile strength of the current web fluid, that had to get made. 

Peter threw his backpack onto a lab bench as he walked in. Tony’s music was playing at a familiarly level, just on the tolerable side of loud, and he hadn’t seemed to notice Peter’s arrival. 

Peter tapped on the lab table to get Tony’s attention before sitting down across from him at the table. “Sup” he smiled up at tony before sitting cross legged on a stool. 

“You know kid, you’ve gotta do your homework” Tony looked up from what he was doing, not putting down his screwdriver. 

“But do I though?” Peter said in a light tone, still getting out his stuff for lab today. 

“Yes actually, Me an’ May decided it’s no sciencing until after homework,” Tony picked back up the screwdriver and pointed it at him, “don’t tell her I almost forgot.” 

“But-“ Peter sighed as he looked up at Tony. 

“Eh- no. No buts, just homework.” Tony did a ‘shoo’ motion with the hand still holding the screwdriver. 

Peter groaned as he put down the half-out web fluid supplies “alright,” 

Tony clicked his tongue as he moved back to his work, “Besides, after that stunt you pulled the other night-“ 

“It wasn’t a stunt Mr.stark!” Peter huffed, crossing his arms. 

“-you probably shouldn’t be allowed in the lab at all anyway, but instead I’m grounding you from patrol for the weekend, it’s cohesive punishment” Tony continued like he hadn’t been interrupted. 

“You need to stop reading parenting books” Peter threw his hands into the air. 

“Yeah well, you need to stop running into burning buildings,” Tony deadpanned, shaking his head. 

“I had to help!” Peter moved to defend himself. 

“Peter, it wasn't even in Queens, and the fire department was already there.” Tony didn't look up from the wiring he was still doing. 

“it was on fire! Was i supposed to sit by while people were trapped inside??” Peter turned back to his new web fluid design, huffing. 

“Peter, it was Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil was already on the scene.” Tony scoffed, 

“Why does he get to throw himself into burning buildings! He doesn't even have a healing factor!” Peter whined as he leaned back in his chair, still holding an empty beaker in his hand.

“You don't know that, and The Devil of Hell's Kitchen isnt a child who had to go to school, literally the next day.” 

Peter passes the beaker from hand to hand while he talks, “How do you know that! You were complaining about not knowing his identity like, a week ago!”

Tony goes silent for a second (Tony Stark going silent at all for any length of time is.. Disconcerning, it means he’s thinking, never good. The last time they let the man think unsupervised he almost destroyed the world. And then he had to think again to save it,) Tony doesn’t look away from Peter as he speaks to Friday, “Hey fri? Add something to my reminders for me would you?,” 

“Yes, boss” a slightly metallic accented voice spoke from around the ceiling. 

“Check up on local talent, make sure they aren't too young to drive,” Tony did a grand gesture with his screwdriver as he talked. 

Peter rolled his eyes in prime stereotypical teenager fashion, “Well okay, first of all, i'll be sixteen in like a few months, and second, why drive in New York when i can swing places?” Peter did the web slinging hand signal as he talked. 

Tony doesn't respond, “Hey Fri, change that note to ‘check up on other local idiot children whose main extracurricular is getting beaten up’

Peter huffs “check yourself” 

Tony put down the circuit board he was holding, “excuse me?”

“You do fall under two of the three listed categories, sir. Should I add it to the memo?” Friday says sweetly.

“Betrayal, Judases, the lot of you.” Tony laughs at them, gesturing wildly around the room with the screwdriver.

Peter is about to sass him, but Tony ended up beating him to the punch, handing him his backpack and telling him to work on homework. Peter stuck out his tongue and walked onto the ceiling to get away from him, and work on his algebra, which admittedly needs to be worked on. 

Peter skulked over to the corner of the ceiling, turning away from Tony and webbing his school Chromebook to the ceiling. 

The thing wouldnt turn on, and Peter almost turned to Tony to make fun of it, but remembered he was still adamantly ignoring him. He definitely wasn't pouting. He was just hiding in the corner and refusing to talk to Tony. It’s different. He’s an adult, he can lift a bus. 

His plan was quickly broken when Tony dropped a vial of something on the floor, the tension dissolved almost immediately, with Peter doubled over laughing and Tony, and tony moving to go get the broom. 

Peter was snorting to himself by the time tony had started brushing broken glass into the dust pan. Tony shook his head and pointed the stick of his broom at him. 

“Youre lucky youre out of my reach, kid” Tony Joked, lightly wapping the brush end of the broom, at peter’s chromebook.

“This is why i webbed it to the ceiling, Tones” Peter chuckled, kicking out at the broom with his foot. 

“Just don't scuff up my ceiling, Spider-Boy” Tony laughed as he turned back to the broken glass, “I should probably clean this up” 

Peter had stopped listening to him, “Oh, yeah… sorry” Peter started gathering his things and before he fell to the floor, looking up to make sure he didn't ruin the prestien ceiling of the lab with his stupid Spider powers. “Sorry, i-” He took a step back, shaking his head “Sorry” 

Tony looked up at him as he poured the dustpan into the trash, “What’re you sorry for, kid?”

“I-” Peter started, shaking his head. Thunder cracked from the storm still going outside. He knows of course Tony was joking. God, hes just over thinking. But he also can’t help but think that Tony doesn't even have any physical ‘enhancements’ and huh, Tony’s just a normal human, minus the richness. What does he think about Peter’s whole thing. God, hes a freak. Maybe that's the difference, is he creepy? Do the papers like him because he’s rich or because he's human. Is that why the civilians don't like him? I mean, it's not like he goes around acting like daredevil or anything. He doesn’t want them to be scared. Maybe Johnny was right, maybe he needs to fix things. Maybe he can't.

“I’m gonna go to bed, Mr.Stark” Peter shook his head, walking towards the exit of the lab. 

“Aight, sounds good, kid” he said from where he was putting away the broom, He paused for a second, “Have a good night, kid.” 

Peter hummed as the door shut behind him, running to the elevator. 

“My room, Friday” Peter took a shaky breath, “Please.”  
The doors opened after a minute to the floor his room was on, where he ran towards his room, throwing his backpack on his bes and climbing up his wall. 

The large window over his bed was being pelted by rain. The storm must have really arrived. It was bound to happen, they'd been forecasting it for days. 

Peter pressed his back harder into the wall, bending his neck into a position that was anything but natural. He rubbed his eyes with the base of his hand, the pressure left dark spots in his vision when he opened them again. His foot was bent against the wall as he supported himself at the highest corner of the room. He collapsed further into himself, outward breath racked in what ended up less of a sigh and closer to a sob. 

The pocket of his jacket was weighed down and hanging off of him, phone silent and threatening to fall of out and onto the floor. Peter blinked the sting out of his eyes and moved to take out his phone to throw it onto the bed before it fell. The pads of his fingers twitched when they hit cardboard.

His phone was partially forgotten as he pulled out a brightly colored orange box. He’d entirely forgotten what it was until he looked closer, the club had felt like eternities ago. 

Peter looked at the box- cheese flavored crickets. For Spider-man. A gift, he should be thankful. 

Tears stung at the corners of his eyes. Yeah, he was thankful. Some insects for the Spider guy to eat, he’d probably love them, too. Maybe it's ingrained into the Spider half of his Dna. The hand holding the box started to shake and Peter closed his eyes almost involuntarily, he could feel a tear rolling unbidden down his cheek. 

Peter threw the box. 

He didnt hold back his strength as much as he meant to. It hit the wall with the dull thud of cardboard crumpling. In the quiet of the room the sound of it ripping open with the impact scratched at the inside of his ears. It was followed by small noises as it’s contents were scattered across the wall in a burst before falling into the carpet below. 

The smell of it was like mist in the air. 

Peter pushed his face further into his arm, a sob escaping his lips as a roll of thunder echoed from outside.

His now empty hand was still shaking as he pulled it back to his chest, head falling against the wall. 

He realized it wasn’t just his arm that was shaking. 

“Mr.Parker” a soft, robotic, voice spoke from a speaker that must have been near him.

Peter didn’t make much of confirmation, but the small noise he made must have been enough for Friday. 

“Your heart rate is highly elevated, would you like me to alert the boss?” 

Peter opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t manage out much of a reply. 

He wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve, “n- no, please don’t” he choked out. 

Peter fell asleep curled against the ceiling.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! This will probably end up around 20 chapters if I stick to the plan (I may not be known for sticking to plans with these, but I’ll try)


End file.
